Alexa is Hiring

Good, 'cause the site premiss is bullshit and they need all the help they can get. Click on the first link on their site if you're interested... http://www.alexa.com/

Founded in April 1996, Alexa Internet grew out of a vision of Web navigation that is intelligent and constantly improving with the participation of its users. Alexa Related Links and Traffic Rankings are the embodiment of this vision, growing and getting better as more people join the Alexa community of smart Web surfers. ~ from their about page

Owned by Amazon, I thought it sounded like a pretty good idea. Build a search engine based upon what people are actually using. So, I added gonegator.com because fans come here for information on Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. But Alexa doesn't work. It holds no credibility with me and it sure as hell shouldn't with you! And I will show you why.

Anyone with a website can download software like Alexa Pro and change their ranking significantly. Almost over night.

Case in point: (alexa stats 2/1/05)
Traffic Rank for tompetty.com: 270,120
Speed: Slow (76% of sites are faster), Avg Load Time: 3.0 Seconds
Other sites that link to this site: 135
Popups: Many (21% of sessions have popups)
Online Since: 27-Apr-1998

Traffic Rank for gonegator.com: 918,938
Speed: Not available
Other sites that link to this site: 16
Popups: None
Online Since: 05-May-1999

Traffic Rank for mudcrutchfarm.com: 182,351
Speed: Average, Avg Load Time: 1.6 Seconds
Other sites that link to this site: 10
Popups: None
Online Since: ???

Ok, the lower the number the higher the Alexa Traffic Rank. Does anybody see anything a little odd with these numbers?

I don't know about you, but I use Google to find real information. Alexa supposedly bases it's ranking on links from other sites. gonegator.com has been and is linked to from usatoday.com and the Atlanta Journal. Are they listed on Alexa? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! And yes, I'm bragging. How many fan sites do you know that have received National press? None? For what I do, that's f#$king awesome!

There are actually about 500 sites that link to gonegator.com. Click here to see!
Done with rant.